Electronic learning aid products designed to deal with specific educational problems such as spelling, math, reading or the like have heretofor been known. Certain of these products have the capability of communicating with the student through synthesized speech. Prior art generally related to the field of such educational products as described in the following U.S. Pat. Nos.: 4,505,682; 4,403,965; 4,457,719; and 4,327,375.
As will be recognized, numerous board games have been heretofore produced for presenting selected alpha-numeric problems to be solved. However, to date, no known dedicated electronic games have been directed towards the specific problem associated with presenting alphanumeric puzzles to a player for solution within a limited period of time.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic puzzle game which is light-weight, portable and simple to use with little maintenance.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such an electronic puzzle game which can aid a player or student in increasing in knowledge of vocabulary and words related to a wide variety of subjects or categories.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such an electronic puzzle game which presents material to be learned in a game-like format in order to increase a player or student's enjoyment during the learning experience.
It is another object of the present invention provide an electronic puzzle game that will generate and display each one of a series of topics or categories, in a first display location, and a selected number of random letters in a second display location, proximate said first display location, as a puzzle to be solved by one or more student's guessing and writing down words that begin with each of the letters corresponding the topic/category.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic puzzle game that will also generate and display a "wild card" indication, as well as a variety of other titles and device conditions, in either or both display locations.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide in one embodiment an electronic puzzle game having an integral timer with audible and/or visual indications, the timer being the method of determining the period within which the puzzle is to be solved, and thus also helping to determine the difficulty level of the puzzle, the difficulty level being fully determined by a combination of the particular categories/topics preassigned and stored for each level, and the amount of time pre-allotted for the solution of the puzzle at that level.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide an electronic puzzle game having a means of accepting signals input by the student relating the starting and stopping of each round of play, the choice of levels of difficulty, and power on and off.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an electronic puzzle game having a plurality of topics from which to choose through the use of internal memory and/or external, plug-in expansion modules, each containing multiple different categories.